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Strictly Ballroom

The exuberant story of the struggle for love and creativity in a world limited by greed and regulation. This endearing film featuring ballroom dancers swept Australian and international audiences off their feet and won accolades for dancer Paul Mercurio and director Baz Luhrmann.

Strictly Ballroom won the Prix de la Jeunesse for Best Film and was runner up in the Camera d'Or prize section at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. It won Best Film of the Festival – Audience Vote at the Sydney, Melbourne and Toronto Film Festivals, and was nominated for thirteen AFI awards in Australia.

Author

Baz Luhrmann's background is broadly based in the performing arts. He was an actor in
Winter of Our Dreams and co-director and performer in the docu-drama
Kids of the Cross. In 1986, while a student at the NIDA, he devised the first stage version of
Strictly Ballroom in collaboration with other students and directed the production. At the World Youth Theatre Festival in Czechoslovakia he received the Best Director award. In 1987 he co-wrote and directed
Lake Lost for the Australian Opera. On graduating from NIDA he was appointed Artistic Director of the Six Years Old Company and revived
Strictly Ballroom for a successful season at the Wharf Theatre in Sydney and World Expo in Brisbane. Baz and his team produced the Coca Cola Bottler's Dance Hall as part of the 1989 Festival of Sydney. In 1990 he directed
La Boheme for the Australian Opera and he directed
A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1993. The films that have made him internationally famous are his flamboyant renditions of
Romeo and Juliet and the musical
Moulin Rouge.

Craig Pearce is a NIDA graduate who has acted in theatre, film and television. Craig played Gary in
Strictly Ballroom (the play) with the Six Years Old Company and has acted in productions by the Griffin Theatre Company, Phillip St Theatre and the STC. His directing credits include the documentary
Brat Cats.